A SIX-WEEK long recycling awareness campaign has been launched by Salisbury District Council to help explain its proposed new refuse collection service to householders.

The scheme, which officers have been piecing together over the past two to three years, was put on hold by the council's new Liberal Democrat and Labour cabinet recently to allow an extensive public consultation of the issue.

In a series of articles the Journal will be publishing over the coming weeks the council will be putting forward its case for stepping up recycling.

Launching its campaign this week the council said it was clear the district must find a way of getting people to recycle more, because:

  • Space on landfill is running out.
  • Rubbish buried in landfill is seriously harming the environment.
  • We are not recycling enough. If we do not increase our recycling figures by 80 per cent in the next three years, the council - and council taxpayers - will be hit with seven-figure fines.

"We want every resident in south Wiltshire to know why it is so important to recycle, what it means to the environment and what it could mean for the future of other council services," said a council spokesman.

"Over the next six weeks we will be highlighting a number of issues around recycling. We will also be running an opinion poll on our website."

You can keep up-to-date with the campaign at www.salisbury.gov.uk.

  • Easing the pressure on landfill
    THE leader of Salisbury District Council, Paul Sample, got his hands dirty on Monday to show why the district needs to go green.

Even though local residents are already recycling 40 tonnes daily, the district still sends more than 130 tonnes of rubbish to landfill each day.

The council estimates that a further 50 tonnes per day could easily be recycled.

Councillor Sample witnessed first hand the amount of rubbish the district produces in one day alone by going along to the Hills waste transfer site at Thorny Down, near Winterslow, along with cabinet member Paul Clegg and environment and transport portfolio-holder James Robertson.

Cllr Sample said: "We constantly hear how important it is to recycle, but are we really being made aware of why it is so important to recycle?

"That is why we are launching this campaign. We want to make every resident aware of the reasons for recycling.

"It's clear to me just looking at how much rubbish there is here that we are still a throwaway nation.

"There will soon be no space left in landfill for this rubbish. The local landfill site we use now is expected to run out of space in 2012. So what do we do next?

"We either find more land to dump our rubbish or each and every one of us needs to make that extra commitment to recycle more."